Swimming vs. Fitness (in my case)

[Radux]

In what way does the skin suffer?

Long term swimmers (I was one myself until I needed surgery on my shoulder in college) have really dry skin. One thing I used to do was lick my arm and then everyone within a ~5 food radius could smell the chlorine lol.

Chlorine will also absolutely ruin your hair over a long period of time.

[Shelly]

Your body type seems to go towards lean. Which is nice but you won't bulk up until your mid-twenties.

I'm 32 now and 220lbs, but still look pretty lean even though I'm carrying a belly. (Damn you call center spread!)

But at 19 I was 150, I graduated HS then went to 200 or so and stayed there until I was in my late 20s. So expect quite a bit of body change as you get older. As is our bodies don't really finish with puberty until 25 or so, as such don't expect massive results until you're a bit older, it's just not going to be realistic.

Your diet seems alright to me, several moderate helpings of food and one large meal is fine. While what you eat does matter, as long as it's not super-heavy on saturated fats and highly salted starches you should be alright. In other words, avoid fast food.

Swimming and a more comprehensive fitness program sound like they'd be right up your alley if you can find the time. As others have said just swimming you won't really bulk up, but swimming for a skinny person is an amazing workout, fat people, sorry, you float too much.

Anyway, the most important thing for any sort of fitness and maintaining a lean or even muscled body come down to two things:

1. It has to be something you can do at least every other day if not more often. Consistency is key here and your goal isn't to bulk up for summer, it's about remaining fit for life so you can have a good quality of life as you get older.

2. The amount of calories you take in during the day should roughly equal your calorie expenditure for the day. A lot of people like to talk evolution and metabolism and such, but really it all comes down to basic math. Did you eat 4,500 calories today but only used 2,500? OK, you now have 2,000 calories in your system and they aren't just going to be crapped out.

[iLive]

Long term swimmers (I was one myself until I needed surgery on my shoulder in college) have really dry skin. One thing I used to do was lick my arm and then everyone within a ~5 food radius could smell the chlorine lol.

Chlorine will also absolutely ruin your hair over a long period of time.

What happened to your shoulder (if I am allowed to ask)?

And how often did you use to swim, and for how long, because that chlorine thing sounds pretty serious. :P

[Radux]

What happened to your shoulder (if I am allowed to ask)?

And how often did you use to swim, and for how long, because that chlorine thing sounds pretty serious. :P

Torn rotator cuff. I was a competitive swimmer for most of my life. I swam year round from when I was 15 (freshman in high school) until 21 (junior year of college, where I tore my rotator cuff). In high school it was 2.5-4 hours a day pending if we had morning practices or not and college was ~5 hours a day pending if it was a Saturday practice or not. This, of course, was assuming we had Sunday's off (which we did).

I went to a really small high school, so our ventilation was terrible, thus some major chlorine issues. At the same time, my college pool was fantastic and had top notch everything. But it still ruined my hair every year, so I needed to wear a cap even for practice.

[iLive]

Your body type seems to go towards lean. Which is nice but you won't bulk up until your mid-twenties.

I'm 32 now and 220lbs, but still look pretty lean even though I'm carrying a belly. (Damn you call center spread!)

But at 19 I was 150, I graduated HS then went to 200 or so and stayed there until I was in my late 20s. So expect quite a bit of body change as you get older. As is our bodies don't really finish with puberty until 25 or so, as such don't expect massive results until you're a bit older, it's just not going to be realistic.

Your diet seems alright to me, several moderate helpings of food and one large meal is fine. While what you eat does matter, as long as it's not super-heavy on saturated fats and highly salted starches you should be alright. In other words, avoid fast food.

Swimming and a more comprehensive fitness program sound like they'd be right up your alley if you can find the time. As others have said just swimming you won't really bulk up, but swimming for a skinny person is an amazing workout, fat people, sorry, you float too much.

Anyway, the most important thing for any sort of fitness and maintaining a lean or even muscled body come down to two things:

1. It has to be something you can do at least every other day if not more often. Consistency is key here and your goal isn't to bulk up for summer, it's about remaining fit for life so you can have a good quality of life as you get older.

2. The amount of calories you take in during the day should roughly equal your calorie etxpenditure for the day. A lot of people like to talk evolution and metabolism and such, but really it all comes down to basic math. Did you eat 4,500 calories today but only used 2,500? OK, you now have 2,000 calories in your system and they aren't just going to be crapped out.

Thanks. :] Also, I am not expecting major results anyway. I don't expect to look like the picture I linked with the swimmer, but I just wanted to link the direction I want to head. There's a lot of different body types out there, and I didn't want people to believe what I wanted was something like this when I said I wanted my body to grow. I remember that when I did go to fitness that month last year, I never looked into the mirror and waited for results. I just liked the idea of doing workout and feeling sore in my muscles. I mean for real! It wasn't until I for fun looked at my arm and noticed how much it had grew. My aunt even complimented me one day when I helped my uncle with his garden. I wasn't expecting anything to change, but it did. So for me it's not about achieving the super body, but to do stuff that might be a better choice than a lot of other things I do.

I really laughed at the floating joke. ;P It reminds me of my younger sister. But I am pretty sure there's a way to workout in water, even for fat people.

Great post, thanks <'3

---------- Post added 2011-08-12 at 02:48 AM ----------

Torn rotator cuff. I was a competitive swimmer for most of my life. I swam year round from when I was 15 (freshman in high school) until 21 (junior year of college, where I tore my rotator cuff). In high school it was 2.5-4 hours a day pending if we had morning practices or not and college was ~5 hours a day pending if it was a Saturday practice or not. This, of course, was assuming we had Sunday's off (which we did).

I went to a really small high school, so our ventilation was terrible, thus some major chlorine issues. At the same time, my college pool was fantastic and had top notch everything. But it still ruined my hair every year, so I needed to wear a cap even for practice.

So the damage came slowly to that group of muscles as you swam, or was it some sort of instant movement you did?

[Deleted]

im an ex swimming coach for club to national level swimmers my brother is a full time national coach for swimming. and what i will say is swimming is great for getting a good body when combined with weights, think of swimming like weights, you do a few hundred laps easy its like lifting a light weight hundred of times if you do more sprints and have a powerhouse style where you really fell yourself pushing the water it will help you bulk up more.

swimming gives you a lean body but on its own unless physiologically predisposed you wont gain loads of muscle mass. it will tone strengthen condition and help stretch the upper body muscles amazingly, and with the correct weights regime will definately give you more of a male model esq body (broader shoulders slim waste the classic V shape for most)

The torn rotator cuff is a common injury for alot of swimmers, due to the many having a preference for the front based strokes, you will find swimmers who do alot of backstroke have less problems due to working more of the rear shoulder muscles. when only doing frontcrawl butterfly you really hit your chest muscles hard and need to stretch your chest out alot and often use certain strengthening / conditioning exercises to balance it out.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P6MMD5L7498

that video shows you the sort of exercises i mean but those too me look a little out dated as their are slightly better positions to minimise strain and maximise the strength so seek proper advice if you can / do worry too much about it.

---------- Post added 2011-08-12 at 02:06 AM ----------

The torn rotator cuff is a common injury for alot of swimmers

usually the problem is the chest being to tight and pulling the shoudler forward so that i think its the joint itself or one part of it rubs against the rotator cuff and slowly wares a hole through it, usualy poor posture / shoudler pain / wierd feelings / crunching sounds are an early indicator for it so you can catch it easily and treat it fast if you know what to look out for and wont cause tyou any problems long term or short term if you treat your body right. also its not something you see in too many asual swimmers unless they are the classic go the gym do bench press bicept curls then ignore the rest of the body that isnt the main 'OMG he looks huge because of....' muscle groups :P balance is the key!

EDIT: i remembered a test that you can do yo test your shoulders for imbalance, stand upright shoudlers back hold a pencil in your fist with arms by your side so that the point is facing forwards. then relax your self and see where the pencil pointsif it is still pointing forwards or barely moves your probably fine if naturally the pencil ends up pointing across your body (so holding in the right hand will point to the left hand) you need to stretch your chest and strengthen those back and shoulder muscles!

[xile]

Torn rotator cuff. I was a competitive swimmer for most of my life. I swam year round from when I was 15 (freshman in high school) until 21 (junior year of college, where I tore my rotator cuff). In high school it was 2.5-4 hours a day pending if we had morning practices or not and college was ~5 hours a day pending if it was a Saturday practice or not. This, of course, was assuming we had Sunday's off (which we did).

I went to a really small high school, so our ventilation was terrible, thus some major chlorine issues. At the same time, my college pool was fantastic and had top notch everything. But it still ruined my hair every year, so I needed to wear a cap even for practice.

If you live in indiana did you go to college/highschool here??

[Radux]

Yeah it was a long term thing. Like hellfellow mentioned, it was largely based on the fact that I swam 200 & 400 IM, and distance (front crawl). I had sore shoulders coming into the pre-season of my junior year, but I just kept icing and icing -- it never really went away.

On top of that, I was/am a very weak kicker. I pulled a majority of my distance races with minimal kicking (thus more stress on my shoulders).

So yeah, one meet I was warming up and then my first couple strokes after a random turn and bam... lots of pain in my left shoulder and felt like throwing up.

Honestly if you're not really serious into swimming and don't really push your body, it shouldn't be a big problem.

If you live in indiana did you go to college/highschool here??

Yeah I've been in Indiana for quite a while.

[Deleted]

How do you feel your body is affected by this? I mean, are you able to stay fit with swimming? :]

I'm fit, but I don't only swim. I run... walk to work (5km on way), bicycle, do Yoga, do Boxing... I work out twice a day, at least. So... yeah, I'm pretty fit. But swimming alone will get you fit, it's just not going to make your body a lot bigger, it'll just define muscles a lot more. You'll gain a bit of muscle, but the process will be so slow that even on a year to year measurement you won't really be able to tell

Yeah, but I don't think I can achieve what I want with running only. :[

But doing several things will keep it interesting and enjoyable. Once you make it all repetition of the same thing, it'll become a struggle to keep it up in moments of weakness. Rotating several exercises around might just be able to give that extra push.

Well, win win situations are good, but I am pretty sure pure workout is more effective. :] Besides, what I meant with poor student isn't that bad actually. I just like saving money and not spending too much (currently saving for license).

Sure, it'll be more effective in the sense of an exercise, but it won't be better at building character and saving money for a car to go with that license.

My body really ignores everything I eat though. I am sure, that even if I did eat McD all the time, I would just get thinnier. :P I just don't understand why I don't gain weight no matter what I eat. I feel afraid of beginning to workout, because it feels like it will only make me even thinner to move around. If I don't gain weight by doing nothing, why should workout help me? I know that I will build muscle mass, but by brain just can't accept it and understand it. ;P

Eat nothing but Mc Donalds for a month, even if you don't gain weight, you'll feel terrible, absolutely terrible all the time. I want to lose weight or I want to gain weight, are really terrible motivators. They are terrible reasons to exercise. There should really be only one reason why you work out and that is; I need to be healthy. If you're thin and light, you'll put on weight as you get healthy, it might take a few years, because you'll be putting it on in muscle mass. Because by the looks of it, you have no fat to burn, so you won't really get lighter or thinner. More defined, yes.

[Deleted]

Yeah it was a long term thing. Like hellfellow mentioned, it was largely based on the fact that I swam 200 & 400 IM, and distance (front crawl). I had sore shoulders coming into the pre-season of my junior year, but I just kept icing and icing -- it never really went away.

On top of that, I was/am a very weak kicker. I pulled a majority of my distance races with minimal kicking (thus more stress on my shoulders).

So yeah, one meet I was warming up and then my first couple strokes after a random turn and bam... lots of pain in my left shoulder and felt like throwing up.

Honestly if you're not really serious into swimming and don't really push your body, it shouldn't be a big problem.



Yeah I've been in Indiana for quite a while.

as said the intensity and type of the training you do will determine how fast and / if you will ever get a shoulder problem. most good clubs now will have phsyio's on staff or regular seminars to show basic exercises to avoid these sort of problems, but it still happens, iv had to ban swimmers from training at the age of 13 due to shoulder injuries caused by a mix of intense training with not seeking help / parents shrugging it off as 'growing pains' / not listening to advice when given.

my own sister (14 years old) had to do exercises 3-5 times a day for around 6 weeks to strengthen her shoulder muscles then carry it on daily and watch posture. but then again the swimmers that get these sort of injuries get them over long periods of time or from intense competeive training anywhere from 8-16 hours a week of pool time not including land training etc so i really wouldn't worry too much about it! and sore shoulders after swimming may just be the muscles you dont use much / havnt used in a long time feeling the burn :P so dont let all this injury talk scare you! the fact its water based means so little stress on your body and joints compared to nearly any other exercise there is as the water spreads your weight and holds you basically!

[Shelly]

I really laughed at the floating joke. ;P It reminds me of my younger sister. But I am pretty sure there's a way to workout in water, even for fat people.

Great post, thanks <'3

Thanks and there are plenty of larger people who work out in pools. It's a great way to have a low impact aerobic workout, especially for seniors since the water will help support your balance.

But it's not gonna get you thin unless you're already there.

This is the result of a couple of things that get weird.

First, like I said, the larger you are the more you float. So you don't have to work as hard to maintain your position in the water.

Second is strange because it has to do with insulation. Where the water traps heat closer to you which somehow cuts into calories or something. I really don't know, it's just something I heard when I was about your age from a series I was forced to watch for my health class.

Either way, I've never seen a large person who would only swim turn into a skinny swimmer. What I have seen though are skinny swimmers bulk up with that leaner muscle, mostly rather untoned but very much just under the skin. Kind of like a snake or dolphin.

[Deleted]

Either way, I've never seen a large person who would only swim turn into a skinny swimmer. What I have seen though are skinny swimmers bulk up with that leaner muscle, mostly rather untoned but very much just under the skin. Kind of like a snake or dolphin.

so you went for presuming that swimming wont help you lose weight due to a few painfully minor points xD

if they are a proper fatty theres a good chance they swim get tired and then go binge eat and eat 1-2k calories after burning like 500! the main exercise doesnt come from trying to float in swmming its the dragging yourself through water! pushing yourself against resistance for length after length

[vacor]

From Seeing what your goal is and roughly what you want in regards to the pictures, It seems like a combniation of Swimming( for tonning, full body exercise ) and some Weight lifting ( for muscle mass)

For Swimming I would recomend doing Front crawl(freestyle), breaststroke, to tonne your arms.
Kicking sets for your legs( and please for the love of god dont bend your knee like your doing a irish Step dance, you kick with your entire leg, the power comes from your thigh/hip not your calf)
Isometric Stretching for your shoulders/chest/neck ( as that your a beginner parts of your stroke will be off, Stretching the muscles most affect will offset this slightly (untill you improve in stroke mechanics)
and Steadly increase from whereever you can start at in yardage 1000 lets use as a example to around 6000.
Do that 3-4 times a week
Other things to note, Getting a speedo/jammer Is extremly helpful, WHen people swim in Boardshorts its creates soo much drag its too hard on their body and they end up hurting muscles instead of helping.
You can at times get bored when swimming long sets, if you have the cash to blow use a underwater mp3 player.

Weightlifting, Do some basic weight sets, bicep curls, shoulder shrugs, tricep extensions, weighted lunges, leg press, bench press,
I would recomend starting off slow with a moderate weight(for you) and do 15-18 reps per set 3 sets per exercise( rest in between each set)
that will give a small amount of musicle gain and shouldnt be to hard impacting on your body.

once you have gotton into a groove you can start if you want doing heavy wieghts low rep 8-12 reps 2 sets per exercise
that really tears the muscle apart( in a good way) so it will rebuild stronger and bigger)

Key things to Realize, Swimming alone will increase your muscle mass slightly, but its alot of cardio and takes alot of time for the effort put in.
Weightlifting done right will acheive results quicker but in most cases your posture when weightlifting will be off which can lead to injury's down the road
Doing a combination of the two allows your to hit all your muscles, Really work your body and keeps muscle impact/join impact low to avoid common injurys.

[iLive]

I was at the gym earlier this week, but I think I pushed myself too hard, because I felt sore in my muscles in more than 48 hours and it also hurt when I used my arms. I made 10 reps and 3 sets (is that how it's said?), and I focused on my arms that day.

First I warmed up with running for about 12 min. Then I used all machines that focused on my arms, but I did try out some for my legs and abs, but it was only my arms that felt sore. I don't really remember the amount of kg I used for each exercise, but Ijust chose the one where I wouldnt be able to make more reps after I was finished.

I plan to visit it 4-5 times a week for 1 hour each. Or it it better to stay for longer and maybe do less time or? Also, there's the rule with giving your muscles 48 hours to rest, but should I then only focus on one group per day and then come next day and, or should I rest two things at a time and then wait two days before going again or? I mean, are there a more effective way or is that not important.

I plan to subscribe for swimming soon, so looking forward to add that aswell to my routine. TY guys for all comments.

[Nightsight]

I suggest starting with triathlon.

It's a great sport, which requires you to use you're whole body in one competition, it gives you a more whole muscular body than doing 1 specifik sport.

If you don't know what it is, it's a multisport containing swimming, cycling and running. It's a very addictive sport, specially if you get into a good triathlon community.

The variation of training is also a very big motivational factor, and specially during racing, if you are better at one of the disciplines, I can think while cycling "just a few km's to I can get off the bike and start running"!

It's a great sport

[flyat]

i like swimming